Keith Barrow

CRRC Tangshan has released images of bodyshells for new double-deck coaches for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Septa) undergoing tests at its plant in China’s Hebei province.

ALGERIA’s president, Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika, inaugurated two extensions of the Algiers metro on April 10, adding five more stations to the network.

THE government of the Australian state of Victoria announced on April 10 that it will allocate $A 3m ($US 2.3m) from its state budget to fund design and planning work on an 18km extension of the Melbourne tram network to Monash University and Rowville in the city’s southeastern suburbs.

THE United States Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has awarded California’s Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (Smart) a $US 22.5m grant to help fund the extension of its Santa Rosa - San Rafael commuter rail line to Larkspur ferry terminal.

CANADIAN prime minister, Mr Justin Trudeau, and the premier of Quebec, Mr Phillippe Couillard, announced on April 9 that federal and provincial funding will be made available for the extension of the Montreal metro Blue Line from Saint-Michel to Anjou.

CAMBODIA’s minister of public works and transport, Mr Sun Chanthol, officially opened a new rail link to Phnom Penh International Airport on April 10.

CANADIAN national passenger operator Via Rail has awarded Bombardier a $C 54m ($US 42.3m) contract to upgrade 17 of its oldest coaches to meet current and future accessibility standards.

FOLLOWING an international tender, northern Rhineland Palatinate regional rail authority ZSPNV-Nord has selected DB Regio as preferred bidder for a contract to operate new regional services between Trier and Luxembourg from December 2019.

SHENYANG opened the first addition to its metro network for more than four years on April 8 with the start of trial passenger operation on the 5.3km four-station northern extension of Line 2 from Hangkong Hangtian Daxue to Putian Lu.

CZECH infrastructure manager SŽDC has awarded OHL ZŠ, the Czech subsidiary of Spanish construction firm OHL, a €172m contract to reconstruct the Sudoměřice - Votice section of the Prague - České Budějovice line.